Mexico's "Mayan Train," a multibillion-dollar project constitutes a matter of national security, the country’s president said on Tuesday, in a move that may help disentangle the project from several pending legal injunctions stalling construction.
The project, which aims to link tourist zones in the Yucatan Peninsula, will continue under this new status, Lopez Obrador said in a regular news conference.
He insisted the infrastructure project will be completed by the end of next year.
The project has been beset by legal challenges, with critics saying the 1,470-kilometer (910-mile) line is being rushed through without proper environmental impact studies.
A spokesperson for the National Fund for Tourism Promotion (Fonatur) confirmed that the project was now deemed one of national security by Mexico's National Security Council.
Under the measure, federal agencies can expedite authorizations and licenses for telecommunications, tourism, railways, ports, airports and other infrastructure projects that are considered "priority or strategic for national development."
That could help sidestep legal injunctions due to environmental concerns that have stopped construction along parts of the line including section 5, which connects tourist hot spots Cancun and Tulum.
In February 2021, a judge also suspended new work on the project in Yucatan state amid a review of an environmental impact report.
But Pepe Urbina, a Quintana Roo-based cave diver who is a member of the activist movement Selvame del Tren, or "Save me from the Train," told Reuters that he believed legal injunctions should not be overridden.
"It doesn't matter if it is a matter of national security ... The precedent of a judge's authority being broken is terrible and should concern all Mexicans," the cave diver claimed, adding that he believes that what the government is doing is "illegal."
